He Has Changed
by Bettakappa
Summary: As time passes in a life beyond Dillon, it's the little moments that make him realize how much things have changed, how much he had changed.
1. Chapter 1

He Has Changed

**A/N: So I just watched the entirety of FNL on Netflix and I became **_**obsessed **_**with Tim and Lyla (and the show itself, obviously). I loved every scene they had together and this is just a little off-shoot in my imagination on little moments in building a future together (since the show obviously didn't think that was possible lol).**

* * *

Tim Riggins walked through the stores of the A&amp;P, the same A&amp;P he'd went to since he was a 15 year old buying beer for his brother. He doesn't come as often as he used to, he doesn't come to Dillon as often as he used to, but it still feels like home. Only now its his old home. He has a new life now, one that he'd never admit to wanting as the 15 year old beer-buying football jock, but one that he couldn't live without now. It's usually when he comes to this same A&amp;P that it hits him how much things have changed, how much he has changed.

"Tim Riggins is that you?"

It amazed him how often people stopped him in the grocery store to talk about football. For some people, Panther football was all they had. Yes, he was a legendary Dillon Panther and he loved every second of it, but it just made him that much more thankful that it wasn't all he'd become.

This voice was different though, it was a woman and as he turned around he knew...Tyra Collette.

"Miss Collette" he said with that unmistakable smile.

"I knew it was you! But with that haircut you kinda look like Jason Street."

Tim laughed and ran his hands through his significantly shorter hair, "Yeah its a bit of a change but come on, I'm much more handsome than Streeter."

He shoved his hands in his jeans as Tyra came over to him, "I can't believe it, I've been back in Dillon for an hour and I've already seen Riggins."

"You don't live around here anymore?"

"Nah, I live in Ohio actually." she laughed, gauging Tim's disgusted reaction, "This is the first I've been back since our nieces were born."

Billy and Mindy gave birth to twin girls, Alice and Jane three years ago to become the little sisters of rambunctious Stephen. Tim sometimes forgot that Tyra was also the aunt to his brother's little ones because she was never around.

"That's right, I didn't see you though."

"No, Mindy said you were home the week I came. Mindy and my mom have been so busy you know and I've been away, I've barely spoke to them in years. Actually that's why I'm back, to mend some fences."

"Mend some fences?" Tim gave her an eyebrow, "What exactly have you been up to in Ohio, Collette?"

"I'm engaged." Tyra said matter-of-factly, "To this guy they don't exactly love. I've put off our wedding for the last three years because I want my mom and sister to be there so…"

"I get ya." Tim said.

"So I haven't heard much about you, I take it you're still a Dillon Panther?"

"Actually, not really." Tim smiled, "I still have that land, you know, and we come here on the weekends to relax over there sometimes, but yeah I live in Austin actually in the suburbs."

"Tim Riggins lives in the suburbs, you're kidding?!" Tyra almost fell over.

"Well I got a kid now, so my boy needs some space in the city."

Tyra did fall over, "You're a dad. Oh my god, I don't believe it, show me a picture."

Tim rolled his eyes, "Fine." He pulled out his iPhone and scrolled through until he proved it, showing Tyra a picture of him holding a baby in a blue blanket in a hospital room.

"His name is Samuel, Sam for short, he's almost a year old now."

Tyra gushed, "He's adorable Tim!" then she saw something that caught her eye as she grabbed the phone from Tim's hands.

"Why is Buddy Garrity in the hospital room with you and your newborn son?"

"Oh," Tim laughed, "He's scoutin' those Dillon Panthers a lot earlier than he used to."

Tyra didn't buy that at all and looked at him skeptically.

"He was meeting his first grandchild."

"You got Lyla Garrity pregnant?!" she exploded.

"You mean Lyla Riggins?" he grinned.

"Tim!" Tyra playfully hit him, "You married Lyla!? What!?"

"What?" Tim defended himself, "Yeah, I married her three years ago, and _then_ had a baby."

"Tim!"

"Stop sayin' that!"

"Tim, I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks Tyra, I appreciate it." he exhaled, running his hands through his hair, "I'm happier than I could have ever imagined. And I'm glad you're happy too."

"I guess it took gettin' outta Dillon, huh?"

"Surprisingly, yeah." Tim nodded.

"Well, I'll see ya around, Tim Riggins."

"Hey, what's your fella's name?"

She gave him a look, "Does it matter?"

He shrugged, "I guess not."

"I'll see you around, Mr. Lyla." she smirked.

"Yeah, see you around." he nodded back and gave a pathetic half-wave.

* * *

After leaving the store, he pulled up the dirt road and into his quaint little home on the Dillon countryside. As much as he loved the suburbs, he loved this little piece of Texas that he could call all his own. He found his wife sitting on the porch swing.

Tim smiled as he came into view and Lyla's face instantly lit up.

Tim walked over to her, leaned over and kissed her forehead lovingly. She smiled brightly and grabbed his cheeks while they were still close and dragged them to meet her lips.

"Hi Tim." the way she said Tim still made his heart melt.

"Hi honey."

"How was the store?" she asked.

"Come with me." he deflected her question and reached out his hand.

"What?" she laughed, confused.

"Come with me."

"Tim, Billy's gonna call any minute when we're supposed to go pick up Sam and-"

"Billy can hold on to our kid for five more minutes. Come with me."

"Tim." she smiled.

"I'm spontaneous." he grinned devilishly, "I thought that's why I interest you."

"Fine." Lyla continued grinning. She swore that the amount of time Tim made her smile was going to break her face one day.

He took her three steps off the porch and layed down on the grass.

Expecting to be more of a journey, she stared down at his amazing eyes looking up at her, "What are you doing?"

"Lay with me."

"It's lie." she corrected him.

"I don't lie."

"You're something else, Riggins." she grumbled playfully, crouching down to lie next to her husband.

"Yeah, you're something else too, Riggins." he whispered, cuddling her up in his arms.

Lyla couldn't help but go crazy at the sound of the love of her life calling her by her last name...his last name.

"Look at that." Tim said, staring up into the sky, clear and full of stars.

"It is beautiful. And it's so peaceful here." she replied, wrapping her arm around Tim's torso as close as humanly possible as she dug her head into the crook of his neck.

"Our own little piece of Texas, babe."

"Thank you." Lyla said quietly.

Tim chuckled, "It's just some land, I-"

"No." she cut him off, "Thank you for everything."

"Huh?"

"Thank you for everything. There's way too many things I have to thank you for, Tim, so just thank you for being with me all these years. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Well thank you for being with me." he rubbed her shoulder, still staring up into the Texas sky, "You're the first person who ever stuck around."

Crickets chirped around them, "I love you, Lyla."

"And I love you, Tim." he finally turned his neck around to face her, and she placed a small kiss on his lips. "I could just lie here forever." Lyla exhaled.

"Well you're forgetting about the 11-month old who we have to get from his Aunt and Uncle's house."

She rolled around and scratched his stomach affectionately, "Obviously I didn't forget about our son."

"Holy god, we have a son." Tim shook his head.

"What?" Lyla barely caught the words Tim said.

"I don't know. I ran into Tyra Collette at the A&amp;P today and it just-"

Lyla was fully interested in this now, "Tyra? Oh my god, we haven't heard from her since before Sammy was born...why is she here? Where does she live? How is she?"

"I don't really care about that." he stated clearly, playfully covering his wife's babbling lips, "What I care about is you, and talking to her made me realize how much things have changed, you know. I used to fall back on her all the time whenever I let life walk all over me, she was always this weird constant, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Lyla frowned, not liking where this was going, "Obviously I didn't like that-"

"Jason Street." he replied with a wicked grin and Lyla couldn't roll her eyes hard enough, "Touche."

At the beginning of their love affair, Tyra and Street were two major points of jealous contention between the two. But with enough understanding, time, and love, it was just a testament to how in sync Tim and Lyla were that they could easily joke about it now.

"Anyway, what matters is that this is our life, without all of that crap. I'm a husband...your husband, and a father and a football coach and have a kick-ass place in Austin and a little piece of Texas back in Dillon and I get to share it with the love of my life every single day."

"Aw Tim." Lyla cooed, loving that her husband was being so rarely emotional. She couldn't think of what to say so she started to kiss him. Before they knew it, they were rolling around in the front lawn, laughing and loving each other just as much as the day they met.

"Okay, we have to go to Billy's, he and Mindy gonna kill us if they have to watch Sammy one more minute." Lyla giggled.

"They already got three kids, what's one more matter." he continued kissing down her neck.

"Tim, let's go." she couldn't stop laughing.

"Fine."

"I love you." she smiled getting up and helping him up with her hand.

"God, I love you more." he stared at his wife, following her back up to the porch.

Lyla gasped and showed him her phone.

"Ohhh, five missed calls from Mindy! You're in big trouble!" Tim teased.

"Shut up! This is your fault." she laughed, playfully punching his abs and heading to their car.

"My fault! Don't try to blame this on your husband!" he kept joking as he slid into the driver's seat, taking a minute to look at his very frazzled wife and recognize just how good he had it.


	2. Chapter 2

He Has Changed

Ch. 2

_A/N: Re-watched a couple of FNL episodes the other day and this happened, figured it fit into this story and my fake (aka what I wish was so so real) post-series fate of Tim/Lyla. **This one is a flashback, and takes place a year or so before the first chapter.** Enjoy! _

* * *

"Is this Mr. Tim Riggins speaking?"

Tim wiped his eyes and exhaled, "Yeah, it's me."

"This is Paul from Congresswoman Garrity's office."

With one word, Tim's ears perked up and he stood up immediately. Paul on the other side of the phone must have felt the urgency transmitted through tele-space so he cleared his throat and continued, "The congresswoman is…."

Tim could feel Paul search his Ivy League education for how to put this eloquently.

"...ill."

"Ill, what the hell does ill mean?" Tim barked back a little harder than he probably should have.

"Um, she's in her lavatory right now actually and-"

"I'm coming over now." Tim looked at his watch, and focused on the ticking hands just long enough to register that the day was barely at 10 am.

"Very well, sir, she requested your presence."

"Thanks, man." Tim huffed with the slightest bit of sincerity in his voice. As the phone clicked off in his palm, he stared at it for a bit and smiled. Lyla's employees were bat shit scared of him, and he loved every second of it.

Grabbing his keys, he shoved them in his pocket, feeling them prick against his leg as he began walking down the empty halls. The walk wasn't long, though, as Tim opted to pop his head into the next door, "Hey, Lou, tell Adams that I'm gonna be out for the morning."

"Everything alright, boss?" The older man inquired, taking off his reading glasses slowly and putting down the playbook he was studying.

"Yeah, just gotta check on the wife," Tim nodded back, "Her minions called me a few minutes ago said she wasn't feeling well."

"Minions." Lou chuckled, "I tell you what, that nice woman's been putting up with you too long, maybe it finally set her over the edge."

Tim rolled his eyes playfully, "I'll tell her you said that."

"Alrighty there Timmy," Lou stood up, "I'll see you at practice this afternoon, hope everything's alright with your missus."

Tim sped off, seeing the gates of Austin Prep in the rearview mirror of his truck. He made it into town in about ten minutes and felt his Nike's squeak on the polished tile in the lobby of the town hall.

* * *

"Hello, sir." a young woman gave him her best sultry smile.

"Hey," Tim exhaled back. "I'm…."

"I know who you are. Coach Tim Riggins. I love Austin Prep."

"Right. Yeah." Tim couldn't argue with that. He tapped against the counter, "Um, I need to see my wife, Congresswoman Garrity."

"Sure thing, Coach." she winked, handing him a pass for the fifth floor of the building. He grabbed it and sped off, but not before the woman said, "Lyla Garrity is one lucky woman."

"It's Lyla Riggins." he muttered under his breath.

* * *

After making it to the fifth floor, Tim broke open the doors like he owned the place. The young interns just looked down, staffers started walking the other way. Bravely, Paul tried to step in front of him, "Mr. Riggins, the congresswoman is right in-"

"I got it."

Knocking on the closed bathroom door, Tim pressed his ear against it and feigned Paul's annoying voice, "Congresswoman Garrity!..."

He heard a stifled chuckle through the door, "Shut up, Tim."

Laughing, he walked into the private bathroom to find his wife leaned over the toilet.

"Those burgers last night do you in, babe?" he sauntered in, dragging a chair sitting in a corner. over to the toilet.

She groaned and sat back from her relief mechanism, "No, it's not that."

"Well what's going on?" he ruffled his hand through his shorter hair, "Pauly sounded pretty serious on the phone."

"That's because he's terrified of you." she covered her face with her hands to hide her smile, "My entire staff is terrified of you."

"I'm not that scary of a guy am I?" he asked, pulling her up so that she could rest in his lap.

"I probably smell…" she muttered as an aside.

"You smell wonderful to me." Tim proudly announced, placing a kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks for coming, honey." Lyla whispered, nuzzling her nose against her husband's jawline, "I always feel better when you're around."

"No problem, babe." he responded a moment later, peering down to examine her perfect face, "You know how much I hate school anyway, I'd much rather be skipping class sneaking around with my hot wife."

She rolled her eyes, "You're a football coach."

"It's _in_ a school."

"Whatever." she laughed back quietly.

They sat in silence for a little while until Tim broke it, "So you going to tell me what's going on then?"

"I haven't told you…" she swallowed, "But this has been happening the past few days."

"This...what's that mean, the, the-" Tim looked around as if someone could hear him, "...puking?"

"Yes." she nodded, "The puking."

"So, you think you have a bug or something-" he strained his brain for an answer to help his wife and Lyla internally rolled her eyes, Riggins men were so, so clueless.

"Oh my god, Tim." she groaned, "You're gonna make me say it-"

"Say what?" he looked around, puzzled, "Babe, I don't-"

"If you...if you look in that drawer over there." she pointed slowly to the drawer under the vanity,

"I just took a pregnancy test."

Tim stiffled a grunt and his jaw opened, "Oh my god, Garrity..."

Whenever he called her Garrity, it was serious. He didn't know what to say first, as she hung her head, as if it hung on his reaction.

"Babe are you...pregnant?" he whispered, taking the chance to grab her hand and cradle it gently in his.

"That's why I called you," she looked him in the eyes, "I wanted to find out, together."

"Together." he smiled.

"Yeah." she chuckled, "For better or for worse, that's what you promised."

"Guess it's too late to hide this thing." he slowly pretended to take off his wedding ring, and Lyla grabbed it playfully and shoved it back on. She loved how he was able to make her laugh no matter what, and provide her much-needed levity in these points of high stress.

But at some point they had to stop laughing and face this. She knew it, and she knew he knew it, so she narrowed her eyes and asked for some support from the man who was always, always able to provide it for her.

"Tim."

That's all it took. If anyone knew Lyla's mannerisms, it was the man who spent years studying her from afar while his perfect best friend got to be with her.

Tim nodded, and shuffled forward to face his wife with her body still cradled in his lap.

"Well if you are..if _we_ are pregnant." he whispered again, like they were in their own secret world, "Would that be for better or for worse?"

Lyla looked up as if the ceiling held all the answers to the universe, "I know we talked about having kids someday, you know. But _someday_ was as far as it ever got, what does someday even mean? You're busy coaching and I'm a freaking state congresswoman, do we even-"

"Babe, babe, babe," he captured her babbling mouth in a kiss to make her shut up, "I know how you are, you want to have everything planned too the specific sperm…"

"Shut up." she groaned.

"But there's no one else I'd rather do this with, now or in ten minutes, if you're interested." he winked, to receive a pretty hefty lip bite from his wife, "Or in ten years okay, I think we're gonna make pretty kick ass parents. So if someday is_ right now_...then I cannot wait."

She sighed and smiled that unmistakable smile that Tim Riggins always got out of her. She reached out to cup his cheeks in her hand and pull them close to kiss him.

She exhaled abnormally and practically huffed, "Holy shit."

"What?"

"I can't believe I've been married to Tim Riggins for three years and am about to find out if I'm going to have a kid with him." she covered her eyes and shook her head in disbelief.

He smirked, "Now, why are you talking about me like I'm not even here?"

She sighed and answered the most simple question in the world, "I just love you."

"I love you more." he sweetly winked and haphazardly played with a strand of hair, "We've done pretty good, babe."

"We have." his wife bowed her head, feeling the blush come on, "We've done really good."

"You ready?"

She nodded, "Yes."

Tapping his knees, with his palms, he stood up. Lyla watched as her husband seemingly moved in slow motion.

Tim ran his hands through his hair and put his hand on the drawer handle. Just before he opened it, he looked back at her and smiled the most genuinely excited smile she'd ever seen.

"No matter what's in this weird ass drawer, we're in it together, got it?"

Lyla gave him a small smile and nodded back, "Got it."

He opened the drawer and looked down, and Lyla's breath stopped.

Tim lay frozen, staring at the stick at the bottom of the drawer. She couldn't read his face, and she wasn't able to speak to ask him the results, so she waited.

"It's positive." he whispered, looking back at her with disbelief in his eyes.

"Positive?" she breathed back, "Oh my god."

At the end of her sentence, she uncontrollably began to smile, and she couldn't stop. Lyla looked up at her husband whose smile shared the same wattage.

"We're going to have a baby!" Tim practically screamed, talking the two steps back to scoop her up in his arms. Lyla covered his mouth with her hand and laughed.

"Shhhh shhhh! We're…." she looked around in a fit of giggles, "We're in _my office_!"

"Shit, we are." he looked around with her, still rocking her back and forth in his arms, "I'm just so happy right now."

Looking into those dangerous green eyes that had captivated her since she was 15, the 30 year old version of Lyla Garrity Riggins saw her future. She saw happiness, love, faith, fun, adventure...everything he promised her three years ago and worked hard every single day to ensure that he kept that promise.

"Thank you." she replied simply.

He frowned, "Thank you? For what?"

"For this, for...for all of this, our life." Lyla emphasized, "I'm the happiest woman alive."

"Hey, you can thank me _after_ we found out if we're gonna have to raise a girl or a little badass Tim Jr."

Lyla's eyes grew wide, remembering the wild Dillon Panther she fell in love with fifteen years ago, "God, let's hope for a girl."


End file.
